The life of George Stephenson, railway engineer - Lighthouse ...

392 LIFE OF GE0E6E STEPHENSON. [chap. xxxr.
involving enormous loss to the public. Railway bills were
granted in heaps. Two hundred and seventy-two additional
acts were passed in 1846.* Some authorized the construction
of lines running almost parallel to existing railways, in order to
afford the public " the benefits of unrestricted competition."
Locomotive and atmospheric lines, broad-gauge, and narrow-
gauge lines, were granted without hesitation. One of the grand
points with the red-tapists, was compliance with standing orders.
The real merits of the lines applied for, were of comparatively
little moment. Committees decided without judgment, and with-
out discrimination ; it was a scramble for bills in which the most
unscrupulous were the most successful. As an illustration of
the legislative folly of the period, Mr. Robert Stephenson speak-
ing at Toronto, in Upper Canada, some years later, adduced the
following instances : " There was one district through which it
was proposed to run two lines, and there was no other difficulty
between them than the simple rivalry that, if one got a charter,
the other might also. But here, where the Committee might
have given both, they gave neither. In another instance, two
lines were projected through a barren country, and the Com-
mittee gave the one which afforded the least accommodation to
the public. In another, where two lines were projected to run,
merely to shorten the time by a few minutes, leading through a
mountainous country, the Committee gave both. So that, where
the Committee might have given both, they gave neither, and
where-they should have given neither, they gave both.''
* The following is a summary of the railway acts passed in the three sessions
ofl844, 1845, and 1846:—
Tears.